Sunday – Wedding.

Monday – Spent a few hours in the morning targeting a very big crucian. It’s the fourth time I’ve fished the venue to date and although I’ve had plenty of bream, carp and the odd barbel I haven’t caught my target species so it was great to go home with three this time, all around two pounds though.

Tuesday – A new customer had seen me catching plenty of fish on scaled down bolt rigs and requested a day in which I could bring him up to date with this tactic. If you refer to my blog you will be able to see how he fared using the method for the very first time, however in short we landed over 300lb of carp and bream using corn as bait and plenty of Sonubaits Supercrush Green moulded around a small inline lead and fishing just a rod length out. To make things enjoyable I used Korum 12’ 1.5lb Multi-feeder rods and 6lb mainline which is great balanced tackle, can tame anything that’s hooked, and the forgiving tips stop any hook pulls.

Wednesday – At first light I was on the banks of Frensham waiting for my customer for the day that required an introduction to this fantastic venue and a lesson in waggler fishing. The morning’s events can be read in the blog designated to the session.

Thursday – September means barbel and I decided that it was time to see if I could increase my best of 16lb 10oz set way back in 2004. It’s a bit early to expect a fish of this size but they will start to pack on the weight from now on and the month of September really is all about getting to know the stretch of river, getting a few bites on a new method and perfecting a baiting plan which hopefully will repay me come the later months of the year.

Arriving at the river at 5pm I had already ear-marked three swims that I wanted to bait and fish and this is exactly what I did. The first swim saw the tip fly round after five minutes, the culprit a modest chub, the second the same happened but the bite was missed and the third produced a 5lb 7oz chub after twenty minutes. Dropping back in two of the swims after dark produced nothing. I left happy as this stretch can be tough, not just for barbel, but bites from anything! 

Friday – The search for a big crucian goes on and this time I headed back to Godalmings Johnson’s lake, this time with my father. Arriving late in the afternoon it was obvious that the lake was still fishing hard and that if we were to get any action it would be after dark. Dad had a couple of tench testing out scaled down bolt rigs and I had to wait, as expected, till darkness before the starlight disappeared and the first of two crucians turned up. The first weighed 3lb 9oz, the other 3lb 6oz, my biggest of the season and both fell to 6mm Tigerfish pellets fished over Sonubaits F1 groundbait and using a Carbonactive 15’ rod. Apart from a couple of tench it was obvious that the fish weren’t having it and with dad struggling we called it a day come 10-30pm.

Saturday – The morning was spent with the standard website updating and weekly report roundup before I started tidying up the tackle shed, ordering some bait and tackle items as well as making up some rigs and bait for the FAS junior barbel teach in on Sunday afternoon.